The Manhattan skyline of 1930 New York. (TV: Daleks in Manhattan)
New York City, previously known as New Amsterdam and later as old New York, (TV: New Earth, PROSE: Time and Relative) was a city in New York state and one of the largest and most impressive cities in the United States of America, described by Sam Garner as "the city of a million stories". (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan) The Doctor visited it often, in most of his incarnations, particularly his eighth, tenth, and eleventh. (TV: The Chase, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks, The Angels Take Manhattan, COMIC: The Monsters from the Past, Time Bomb, Dinosaurs in New York!, The Greed of the Gavulav, The Doctor and the Nurse, PROSE: CHAOS, Cat's Cradle: Warhead, Christmas on a Rational Planet, Presence, Best Seller, Femme Fatale, Beautiful Chaos, The Forgotten Army, AUDIO: Blackout, Invaders from Mars) According to the Eighth Doctor, though, the traffic was always terrible. (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars)
Geography
The city consisted of five boroughs[additional sources needed] - the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. Manhattan was the centre of the city, containing landmarks such as Central Park, Wall Street and the Empire State Building. Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty lay off the shore. (TV: Daleks in Manhattan, Utopia, PROSE: Salvation)
History
19th century
In 1822, the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith met St. Nicholas in the garden of a New York City mansion. This encounter was observed by Clement C. Moore and it inspired him to write "Twas the Night Before Christmas." (PROSE: A Visit from Saint Nicholas)
In August 1851, the 30.86 m schooner-yacht America, representing the New York Yacht Club, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in seventeen days on its way to the Isle of Wight, where it won the British Hundred Guinea yacht race, thereafter known as the America's Cup Race, on 22 August. (TV: Enlightenment)
Jack Harkness visited Ellis Island in 1892. He died there but returned to life immediately after. This event made Jack realise that he could no longer die permanently. (TV: Utopia)
In the 1890s, four Ovids — being of pure thoughts who travelled from world to world in crystal spheres — became trapped in New York City. Their presence caused people's dreams and nightmare to manifest in reality. The First Doctor, Ben Jackson and Polly Wright were able to free the Ovids from the Manhattan theatre in which they were stranded with the assistance of Harry Houdini. (AUDIO: Smoke and Mirrors)
20th century
In 1927, Jack Harkness was sent on a mission to kill a brain parasite intended to to infect Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Here he met Angelo Colasanto. The two began a relationship. Upon Angelo's release from Sing Sing Prison the following year, he discovered Jack's immortality, resulting in Jack being repeatedly killed by a number of local residents. (TV: Immortal Sins)
In 1930, the population of Manhattan was 1,867,000. (TV: The Gathering) At this time, the Cult of Skaro established a base of operations underneath the Empire State Building. At the same time, a community of the homeless, known as Hooverville (one of several Hoovervilles across the United States as a result of the Great Depression), had been established in Central Park. (TV: Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks)
In October 1938, Orson Welles and his radio drama production company resided in Manhattan, which the Eighth Doctor and his companion Charley Pollard visited. (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars)
By that year, the Weeping Angels had established a "farm" in Winter Quay, a Manhattan apartment building to which Angel's victims from the future would be sent backwards in time to live out their lives. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan) In the same year, River Song, under the alias Melody Malone, set up the Angel Detective Agency to investigate the Weeping Angels invasion of New York City. (PROSE: The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Mystery)
The Sixth Doctor and Frobisher went to New York City to pick up Peri Brown, who had taken some time off from her travels in the TARDIS to visit the city and see the Dodgers play baseball. (COMIC: Time Bomb)
The Empire State Building was once again visited very briefly by the Daleks, as well as by the First Doctor and his companions, in the 1960s. (TV: The Chase)
In the 1960s, the Second Doctor, John and Gillian visited New York City, where they defeated the plans of a mad scientist to liberate zoo animals with his reanimated dinosaurs. (COMIC: The Monsters from the Past)
In 1964, an aeroplane which left New York City with a crew of eleven and hundreds of passengers landed in London with no one aboard, not even the pilot. The matter was investigated by Professor Rachel Jensen of the Intrusion Countermeasures Group. (AUDIO: State of Emergency)
In April 1965, the Latter-Day Pantheon (aliens posing as modern-day gods) visited the city and established a short-lived religion based on their worship. (PROSE: Salvation)
In 1965, there was a major riot in Harlem. Group Captain Ian Gilmore and Professor Rachel Jensen believed that it was caused by a person with psychic powers designed by the Soviet Union to provoke extreme emotions in people. However, they had no proof of this. (AUDIO: Peshka)
In 1969, the FBI tracked down River Song to a New York skyscraper that was under construction. While here, she also observed the presence of the Silents. River jumped off the edge of the building instead of surrendering. The Eleventh Doctor saved River by materialising the TARDIS in the path of her fall, and opening the doors of the swimming pool. (TV: Day of the Moon)
In early 1970, a sick Melody Pond regenerated in a New York alley, to the horror of a homeless man who fled the scene. (TV: Day of the Moon)
In 1971, the Second Doctor and Jamie McCrimmon defeated the Quarks in New York City. (COMIC: Martha the Mechanical Housemaid)
On 24 December 1975, the Seventh Doctor and his companions Ace and Hex defeated the Kellenian invasion of Earth in New York City. (PROSE: Presence)
On 8 December 1980, John Lennon was assassinated by Mark David Chapman in New York City. (PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird)
21st century
During the first seconds of 1 January 2000, New York, along with the rest of the world, was nearly destroyed by the Eye of Harmony. (TV: Doctor Who)
During the early 21st century, occult-oriented street gangs such as the Witchkids spread throughout the city (as well as the world). The Seventh Doctor, on a mission of his own, visited the city as part of his overall plot against the Butler Institute. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Warhead)
UNIT maintained a base in a skyscraper high above Manhattan. It housed a war room, research into Project Indigo and the main Osterhagen key. Martha Jones was stationed there following the defeat of the Sontaran invasion. In 2009, after the Earth was transported to the Medusa Cascade, a Dalek task force took the base, killing many of its personnel although Martha escaped using the Project Indigo teleport. The city itself suffered Dalek bombardment. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
The Vykoids attempted to enslave the population of Manhattan in June 2010. (PROSE: The Forgotten Army)
New York was among the world's major cities where forces of flying Cybermen emerged led by Missy. Taking to the skies, they created a cloud of cyber-pollen above the city. These pollen clouds would then rain upon the graves, recruiting the dead of the Earth into a new Cyberman army. When control of the Cyberman army went to the hands of the recently-converted Danny Pink, he ordered all Cybermen to return to the skies and self-destruct, taking the pollen clouds with them in their combined explosions. (TV: Death in Heaven)
In 2018 the Tenth Doctor and Heather McCrimmon saw Bleak House as a song and dance spectacular on Broadway, New York City. The Doctor didn't expect much of it, but after seeing the show he thought it was brilliant. (COMIC: The Greed of the Gavulav)
In 2067, New York was destroyed by nuclear bombs during the secret Myloki war. (PROSE: The Indestructible Man)
Due to its cold climate and northern latitude, the Ice Warriors sent their Seed Pods here to create an atmosphere lethal to humans, but which the Ice Warriors could thrive in. This was foiled when the Second Doctor used the Weather Control Unit to destroy the pods with rain. (TV: The Seeds of Death)
22nd century
In approximately 2157, the Daleks destroyed New York City in the course of their invasion of Earth. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) The city had yet to be rebuilt in its entirety by Steven Taylor's native time period. (PROSE: Salvation)
By the late 22nd century, the New York waterways were a tourist attraction. (PROSE: Fear Itself)
23rd century
In 2254, New York City was among the major cities where bases were set up by the Daleks, intending to turn Earth into a Dalek production planet, in their attempted invasion which was foiled by the Seventh Doctor. (GAME: Dalek Attack)
Later history
After the inhabitants of the Nerva Beacon recolonised Earth in 16087, the main settlement Nerva City was built on the former site of New York City. (AUDIO: Wirrn Isle)
By the time of the founding of New New York on the planet New Earth prior to 5000000023, the city had been re-created fourteen times, prompting the Tenth Doctor to joke that New New York would more accurately be called "New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York". (TV: New Earth)
Alternative timeline
In an alternative timeline in which Nazi Germany won World War II as a result of the Seventh Doctor and Ace accidentally leaving laser technology in Colditz Castle in October 1944, the Nazi scientists were able to refine uranium and create nuclear weapons. They subsequently bombed New York City, forcing the surrender of the United States and winning the war for Germany. (AUDIO: Klein's Story)
During the Year That Never Was, Martha Jones visited New York City and saw it in ruins. (PROSE: The Story of Martha)
Behind the scenes
- Though they did not film any scenes involving actors, members of the Doctor Who production team visited the city in 2006 to shoot some of the location footage seen in Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks. In post-production, the team altered to make the city look as it had in 1930 to ensure that the scenes matched the scenes shot back in Great Britain featuring the main actors and extras. The New York filming marked the first time in the decade since Doctor Who, that any production of Doctor Who had taken place outside of the UK, and first filming ever done in the United States.
- Russell T Davies considered having the city destroyed in The Stolen Earth but decided against it. (REF: The Writer's Tale)